Tory Members Turn on May as She Stalls on Brexit, Support Plummets into Negative

LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 02: British Prime Minister Theresa May delivers a speech at Mansio
Leon Neal/Getty
Liam Deacon

The Prime Minister’s approval ratings have plummeted by nearly 17 points in just weeks among Tory Party members, as she stalls on delivering a clean Brexit.

Confidence in cabinet ministers overall fell by 18 points between April and May, according to a survey of members by the grassroots website Conservative Home.

On Tuesday morning, it was reported that Mrs. May has once again failed to resolve the Customs Union question and answer key Brexit questions, and anti-Brexit MPs look likely to win votes against her government.

Ministers who are opposed to a clean Brexit were among the least popular, with Chancellor Philip Hammond the lowest-ranked, not for the first time, falling to a disastrous -24.8.

However Brexit Secretary David Davis, who normally occupies a top five position, also haemorrhaged support by almost 20 percentage points, falling to ninth place with a rating of +43.5.

Mr. Davis has previously pushed a clean Brexit outside the European Union’s (EU) Customs Union and Single Market, but recently backed keeping Northern Ireland tied to the bloc to satisfy demand from the EU bosses.

The new Home Secretary Sajid Javid bucked the trend and gained ten percentage points to climb to second place, closing the gap on environment secretary Michael Gove and overtaking Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson.

The vast majority of Tory members back clean Brexit, and 90 per cent are against a second EU referendum, a survey by Queen Mary University of London and YouGov found in January.

However, Mrs. May has recently turned on MPs, such as Jacob Rees-Mogg, who are pushing for a clean Brexit and argue that the issue of the Irish border is being manipulated by the EU and activists to stop this.

Mr. Rees-Mogg hit back in late May, appearing to turn on the Prime Minister and criticising her lack of “action” on Brexit despite making encouraging promises.

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